How Film Formats Changed Over the Years

Photo by Ryota Nakanishi, CC BY-SA 2.0

At any given point in the history of filmmaking, certain basic norms have applied to maintain a consistency across audio-visual presentations, which help technology keep up with our fast changing times and provide the viewers ease of viewership. These norms have been named as film formats and have, as a whole, been a state of constant flux ever since the inception of filmmaking. Of these, the most basic norm becomes that of shape of size; the official term for which is aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio is basically the ratio of the height of the frame to its width. Although simple, this factor has to be taken in consideration during filmmaking, so as to help decide which camera angles, frame etc. would have the maximum impact desired by the filmmaker. Again, this is not a stable concept and has evolved over the years with the growth of technology and creativity in the world of cinematography. However, with the latest technology, film transfer between these different formats is now easily possible.

The Beginning

Aspect ratio is, quite evidently, an inherent trait of filmmaking or any kind of video recording. As such, its starting also dates back to the beginning of moving picture. In the early 1890s, a man named William Kennedy Dickson, a staff photographer at the laboratory of the renowned Thomas Edison, thought to view moving picture through a device using the films that were already under mass production by Eastman Kodak. With a few years of hard work, he invented the Kinetoscope, which today is considered to be something of an early camera, a device contained within a four feet tall wooden case. The recording was done on a 35mm film with an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 1.33.

This invention soon came into the notice of important people and, in 1909, the Motion Picture Patent Company had declared the measurements used, perhaps arbitrarily, by Dickson to be the norm. This caught on with filmmakers, and for many years hence films would be recorded with a 4:3 aspect ratio and an image 4 perforations high, with 35mm film.

Sound Cinema

With the advent of audio cinema, the need was felt to slightly alter this norm. This was because, in those times, the audio recording strip would be optically pasted onto the original film itself, between the perforations and the edge and had to be made room for. Thus the norm changed the aspect ratio from 1.33 to 1.37, which was to be known as the Academy ratio and was, needless to say, a negligible change.

The Advent of Widescreen

With the rise of television in the 1950s, viewers were being taken away from the theatres and into the comforts of their own living room where they could view the movies instead. Television manufacturers had managed to reproduce the 4:3 aspect ratio format, leaving cinema in a theatre no advantage over the small screen.

To battle this, the movie ‘This is Cinerama’ brought with it the novel concept of widescreen viewing, which would forever change the world of film formats and bring it closer to what we know of it today.

Conceptualised and executed by Fred Waller, a visionary who had spearheaded the combat training simulators for World War II Bomber Gunners, the idea was to record audio-visual footage on three cameras with 35mm lens and the frame at 6 perforations high. The resultant video had captured a 147 degree field view, with an aspect ratio of a whopping 2.59.

Naturally, this was an instant hit with audiences. Projected on a curved screen with three projectors and an early surround sound system, ‘This is Cinerama’ ran for up to two years in a few theatres. However, due to the difficulties in recording at the same focal length with three different cameras, the Cinerama format remained limited to travelogues for a decade, until the release of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West was Won.

In April 1953, Paramount attempted to alter the film of the movie Shane so as to fit it to a Cinerama format, calling it the first flat widescreen experience with a 1.66 aspect ratio. However, this was mostly considered a disappointment, since Paramount was simply projecting an Academy format movie on a larger screen, causing severe distortions to picture quality.

Cinemascope and Vista Vision

In the 1920s, a French professor by the name of Henri Chretien had invented the Anamorphoscope, a device with distorted film only in one direction. This was bought by the 20^th Century Fox, which then used it to make films in the Cinemascope format, with 35mm film, 4 perforations high and an aspect ratio of 2.35. This was easier and more economical to make than the Cinerama format, which used three different cameras and also became a hit with the masses with their first movie, The Robe.

Although highly popular with filmmakers and audiences alike, the Cinemascope format still had not satisfactorily solved the problem of grainy video. Thus, paramount stepped in with the VistaVision format.

VistaVision recorded film on a 35mm film at 8 perforations high and an aspect ratio of 1.85. These would later be printed back to the regular orientation. This was first released to the masses with White Christmas and would be used in classics such as Ten Commandments and many ventures of Alfred Hitchcock.

Growth of Widescreen

Most large names had joined the battle for widescreen formats and come out with their own techniques. However, all of these were similar to those already present in the market.

At this time, Mike Todd, a former Cinerama associate and Broadway Producer came out with the Todd AO, a format, recorded on a 70mm film, that was capable of doing what the Cinerama format did with just one camera and projector combination, the aspect ratio being 2.20. Films recorded on this format included Roger and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, Around the World in 80 Days and Sound of Music.

At this time, a small lens inventing and manufacturing company called Panavision that used to work in association with Cinemascope grew to power and took over Cinemascope. They used the 70mm film to create the MGM 65 format which recorded the classic movie Ben Hur. Lawrence of Arabia was made on the Super Panavision 70, which used a regular spherical lens instead of the anamorphic lens.

Recent Years

Over time, 35mm film, which had become obscure, caught up with the 70mm as a cheaper alternative. Thus, in the 1970s, we saw the decline of 70mm film and it is now only used in special recordings.

In the late 1980s, when television had started to talk about high definition, Kerns H. Powers came out with the aspect ratio of 16:9. A derivative of the 4:3 formats, this format would ensure that, when properly formatted on a 16 x 9 screen, all film would occupy the same screen area. This idea has caught on and, as of today, 16:9 aspect ratios are the norm in all of filmmaking.